The ARTS at Marks Garage - SEPTEMBER 2019 Update

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The ARTS at Marks Garage - SEPTEMBER 2019 Update
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The ARTS at Marks Garage - SEPTEMBER 2019 Update

September at The ARTS!

1159 Nu'uanu Avenue | Honolulu, Hawai'i 96817
808.521.2903 | info@artsatmarks.com | www.artsatmarks.com
Gallery Hours: Tuesday through Saturday 12pm - 5pm

Can you imagine Chinatown without The ARTS at Marks Garage?
As an urban planner and co-founder of the former Hawaii Fashion Incubator, I believe that Honolulu’s creative community is an essential part of our urban fabric. Exposure to art and spaces for creative expression opens minds and possibilities. It infuses beauty into urban landscapes, making places that people take pride in and want to live in, rather than just exist.
The creative community needs infrastructure to support its survival - places to work, showcase, perform, and grow their businesses. Those places need to be affordable and embedded in neighborhoods. As Honolulu grows, those spaces are dwindling. It’s a rarity to see an arts center occupying prime real estate in a vibrant downtown - but in Chinatown, that’s The ARTS at Marks Garage.
For the 18 years I’ve lived here, The ARTS has been an anchor for the Chinatown arts district, a hub that almost everyone knows and relates to, and has memories associated with. Yet most of us take it for granted. When I heard that The ARTS was in a leadership transition and struggling financially, I volunteered to join the Board for the very reason that I could not imagine Chinatown without it. The corner of Nu‘uanu and Pauahi has a vibrancy and magnetism that simply does not exist anywhere else in Chinatown. It shows us what’s possible.
The ARTS has a fraught history, and has been through many ups and downs along with the Chinatown neighborhood, as well as the greater arts community. Some of the same conversations from the past are cycling back now: How do we stay relevant? How can we elevate our artistic offerings, even as funding for the arts dwindles? How can the ARTS continue to contribute to the revitalization of Chinatown? Is it possible to have a sustainable business model without traditional funding streams?
Our September exhibit has a bleak theme - Chinatown Without the ARTS, because sometimes it takes imagining the imminent loss of something in order to rethink what’s possible. This is something that The ARTS team and board does regularly, but it's a conversation that involves and impacts the entire community. We invite everyone to engage in this thought process with us and provide your mana‘o toward envisioning what a thriving and sustainable ARTS looks like.
With much aloha,
Melissa White
The ARTS at Marks Board President

The ARTS at Marks Garage CANNOT survive without your help.
The ideal financial income breakdown for a nonprofit arts organization is 30% earned income, 30% donations, 30% grants and sponsorships. We're currently rebuilding identity and confidence in our community while paying off long-held debt. We're doing that on almost 100% earned income, but we can't continue to survive this way.
Our newest board member, photographer Kim Taylor Reece, is taking photos of supporters of The ARTS. If you sign up now, you can get your photo taken by this legendary local artist—and help to ensure that Chinatown remains a haven for artists and those who love and appreciate them!
To become a $10-a-month donor, visit donorbox.org/1001-friends, or click the button below. Thank you!
Support The ARTS!

September Exhibit

Chinatown Without The ARTS
The ARTS at Marks Garage and You
September 6-28
Can you imagine Chinatown Honolulu without the ARTS at Marks Garage? That could become the reality soon. Massive debt, years of mismanagement, changing demographics with evolving expectations have all lead to our current fight for survival. But should we even be fighting that which may be inevitable?
In September, we are presenting a gallery exhibit devoid of the artwork you might expect to find as opportunity to envision Chinatown without the ARTS. Visitors will be welcomed to fill our clean walls and pedestals with notes on their thoughts, memories or commitments of support, or possibly impromptu artistic inspirations. Let us know if you think we should continue our fight to save the ARTS at Marks Garage. Let us know how you will support the ARTS at Marks Garage. Let us know how you will continue artistic practice in Chinatown if the ARTS at Marks Garage can’t be saved. We need to hear from you! Read more

First Friday

Opening of Chinatown Without The ARTS
September 6, 6-10 PM
Join us for First Friday and the opening of our interactive exhibit of Chinatown Without The ARTS, where you are welcome to fill our clean walls and pedestals with notes on thoughts, memories or commitments of support, or possibly impromptu artistic inspirations. Read More

Open House@The Lofts
Chinatown Artist Lofts
September 6, 6-10 PM
Open studios and demonstrations all night! Located at 1109 Maunakea St, Honolulu, HI 96817.

Shows & Events

ARTS AID kicks off with Eric Gilliom and Barry Flanagan of HAPA
The ARTS at Marks Garage
Septemeber 15, 7 PM
Introducing ARTS Aid, a new music series featuring Hawai'i's Musicians performing to help support The ARTS at Marks Garage!
ARTS Aid kicks off with HAPA: Eric Gilliom and Barry Flanagan, performing live at 7 pm! Enjoy this intimate jam session, plus pupu, pop-up shopping in the gallery, drinks, and more.
Parking's free downtown on Sundays and tickets are just $25 (in advance, $30 at the door). Read More
Purchase Tickets

Small Plates Honolulu
Haven Movement Company
September 20 & 21, 8 PM
Merging choreographers and dance audiences in meaningful performance experiences featuring various artists. Read More
Purchase Tickets

The Love Cafe
Ruth Shiroma Foster & Becky McGarvey
September 28, 8 PM
The Love Cafe is an audience interactive, cabaret-style, sing a long, variety show with all live music, singing, and dancing. Featuring local performers Ruth Shiroma Foster and Becky McGarvey, teaming up to show off their skills with their favorite love songs from across the decades. Two women, one night ONLY. Read More
Purchase Tickets

Workshops & Classes

The Acting Studio
COJODA Productions/Acting Studio HI
Tuesdays, 5:30-7 PM
The Acting Studio, a Cojoda Productions company, will be hosting the 2019 Actors Showcase featuring the newest and most exciting faces in the film industry of Honolulu, Hawaii. The show, a mixed media presentation at the most current of art spaces, The ARTS at Marks Garage.

Call to Artists
Hawaiʻi LGBT Legacy Foundation and The ARTS at Marks Garage present a collaborative juried exhibit, “TRANSaction,” in conjunction with HONOLULU PRIDE 2019, to be on exhibit at The ARTS at Marks Garage gallery located in Chinatown Honolulu, October 1 through October 26, 2019. Read More

Books at Marks
Friends of the Library
Open Tue-Sat 12-5 PM, and until 9 PM on First Fridays
There’s a BOOKSTORE in Downtown by Friends of the Library of Hawai‘i!

Save by Being Sustainable!
Purchase an ARTS reusable cup or mason jar, or bring in your own reusable cup and receive $1 off your bar beverage!

Reserve a stall at The ARTS with Parking.com!
Use code mghh25 for $2 off any reservations after 5pm on weekdays and all day on weekends!
Get $2 Off Parking!

Get $5 OFF your LYFT!
Use CODE: ARTSATMARKS for $5 off your first 4 rides! New users only. Subject to Lyft's terms.
Get a LYFT!

Our Partners
AltruVistas
COJODA Productions
Friends of the Library
Hawai'i Shakespeare Festival
Hawai'i Watercolor Society
Playbuilders of Hawaii
T-RX/Hallowbaloo Music + Arts Festival

Our Sponsors

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The ARTS at Marks Garage - SEPTEMBER 2019 Update

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